Super Bowl 2013: Chris Culliver apologizes for anti-gay remarks

NEW ORLEANS -- The 49ers took swift action Thursday in the wake of Chris Culliver's anti-gay remarks, making the second-year cornerback sit and answer all questions from a swarming media horde over the course of an hour.

Afterward Jed York, the 49ers CEO, said he was embarrassed and frustrated by Culliver's "very dumb" comments at Tuesday's Super Bowl media session. York views this as a learning situation, and not just for Culliver.

"You see a football player that had an uninformed opinion," York said. "Now he can grow ... and be a beacon for everybody in the locker room of the 49ers, hopefully throughout the NFL and show that it's more than what your uninformed juvenile opinion is of something."

Culliver climbed into a chair Thursday surrounded by dozens of media members and did his best to answer the barrage of inquiries.

"It is a big deal," Culliver said. "I'm addressing it so it does not escalate and bring distractions to my teammates.

"I apologize. I'm sorry. It's not what I feel in my heart. I know I will learn from this."

During an interview with radio-show host Artie Lange during Tuesday's media day at the Superdome, Culliver said homosexual players wouldn't be accepted inside the 49ers locker room. Culliver said his opinion had changed two days later after talking to a gay relative -- followed by conversations with coach Jim Harbaugh and other team officials.

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"I'm not trying to approach many guys because I don't want this to be a distraction," Culliver said.

Harbaugh had a private conversation with Culliver on Wednesday once the anti-gay comments become widely reported, but the team was not addressed as a whole on the matter. One teammate who did counsel Culliver was safety Donte Whitner.

"The fact is there are people in the NFL that are gay and they're afraid to come out," Whitner told reporters. "I guarantee you there are guys in the NFL like that."

Whitner then said his basis for that statement wasn't via firsthand knowledge of a gay player but more an assumption when considering there are more than 1,500 players in the league.

"A lot of people are afraid to come out because they'd be scrutinized," Whitner said. "A lot of people are not comfortable in a locker and being naked and walking around a gay guy."

Linebacker Patrick Willis sympathized with Culliver's plight, noting: "Chris is a great kid. He's just young, and unfortunately the way it all came off, I know he didn't mean it in his heart."

Harbaugh echoed the 49ers' stance from a Wednesday statement and said he also "rejects" Culliver's anti-gay comments.

"I do believe that there wasn't malice in his heart," Harbaugh said Thursday. "He's not that kind of person. He's not an ugly person, not a discriminating person."

Culliver's role won't change Sunday as he'll serve as the 49ers' No. 3 cornerback and a key special-teams player against the Baltimore Ravens. "The game plan is still the same, and we go forward from here," Culliver said.

Culliver said he wished he walked away from the incendiary interview with Lange, who opened by asking the black cornerback how many white women he would sleep with this week.

"His first question was very disrespectful, and I felt offended," Culliver said. "There were so many people around, and you can't get away from everybody. Guys like that shouldn't be there."

Culliver noted that he walked away from other reporters "harassing" him at media day, when more than a thousand reporters interviewed players and coaches on the Superdome field.

Fellow cornerback Tarell Brown read the transcript of Culliver's interview and was appalled by the questioning.

"It was a crazy setup," Brown said. "I didn't think that was possible at the Super Bowl."

Brown noted, however, that Culliver was wrong for making the comments in the first place. Harbaugh thought so, too.

"It's going to impact him going forward," Harbaugh said. "He will learn about himself. I hope and pray it affects him in a positive way going forward."

York, whose team is among the league's most progressive in its outreach to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, said Culliver told him he would prove his statements weren't heartfelt.

"He made a very bold statement that he wants to get to know the LGBT community," York said. "I said, 'It's up to you. And you can either live up to that, or if you don't, then people are going to vilify you and probably rightfully so.' "

Whitner was among the 49ers who took part in an anti-bullying video called the "It Gets Better Project" in August. But, according to a USA Today story, not all of the participants realized the aim of the production was to fight the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens.

"Oh, that. It was an anti-bullying video, not a gay (rights) video," Ahmad Brooks told the paper.

Isaac Sopoaga, who also appeared in the video, said he too only learned Thursday about the LGBT connection from the USA Today reporter. Did he want to comment about it, he was asked.